Evan S. Cohen, Esq.

Evan S. Cohen is a licensed attorney in California with more than 36 years of experience in the music industry. He has headed music publishing companies and has extensive experience in copyright litigation. Cohen has worked with numerous musicians, songwriters, heirs of songwriters, music publishers, production companies, film studios, record labels, photographers, artists, designers, and various other creative people. He has handled contractual disputes, copyright infringement cases, name and likeness cases, various transactional matters, and royalty disputes. He has been a litigator for both plaintiffs and defendants. His current concentration is in entertainment law and intellectual property with an emphasis on copyright terminations for recording artists and songwriters, administration of various music publishing catalogues, digital rights matters, and royalty collection matters.

Cohen v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 845 F.2d 851 (9th Cir. 1988) – held that synchronization licenses for television shows do not extend to the use of musical compositions in videocassettes.

Valente-Kritzer Video v. Pinckney, 881 F.2d 772 (9th Cir. 1989) – held that fraud claims are not preempted by the Copyright Act

Flo & Eddie, Inc. (The Turtles) v. De La Soul (C.D. Cal., 1989) – one of the first cases involving the legalities of digital sampling

Marascalco v. Fantasy, Inc., U.S.P.Q.2d 1409 (C.D. Cal. 1990); Marascalco v. Fantasy, Inc., 953 F.2d 469 (9th Cir. 1991) – ruling involving the vesting date of terminations under Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act.

Jackson v. Axton, 25 F.3d 884 (9th Cir. 1994) – ruling involving statutes of limitations for copyright co-authorship claims.

Third Story Music, Inc. v. Waits, 41 Cal. App. 4th 798, 48 Cal. Rptr. 2d 747 (2nd Dist. 1995) – ruling involving the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in music publishing agreements

Peterson v. Highland, 140 F.3d 1313 (9th Cir. 1998)(represented prevailing plaintiffs at trial only) – landmark case for rescission, in which The Kingsmen were awarded ownership of iconic recording of “Louie Louie”

Cosmetic Ideas v. IAC/InterActiveCorp, 606 F.3d 612 (9th Cir. 2010) – held that plaintiffs in copyright actions need only apply to the Copyright Office for registration, to have standing to bring infringement suit.

Flo & Eddie, Inc. (The Turtles) v. Sirius XM (C.D. Cal., 2013) – held that a public performance right exists under California law with regard to pre-1972 sound recordings

SELECTED CASES